Barbara Boxer urges Bob Filner to resign, get help

U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., just issued this open letter urging former congressman and current San Diego Mayor Bob Filner – besieged by accusations of sexual harassment – to resign.

Dear Bob,

We’ve known each other for a long time, and have worked together on many issues that are important to the people of San Diego – from creating jobs to protecting the environment to helping our veterans.

So I am speaking to you now on a personal and professional level, and asking you to step down as mayor and get the help you need as a private citizen.

I have already said publicly that you should resign your office as mayor because of the shocking revelations by many women about your behavior toward them.

But now I must say this directly to you: Bob, you must resign because you have betrayed the trust of the women you have victimized, the San Diegans you represent and the people you have worked with throughout your decades in public life.

I have worked for so many years to prevent and punish sexual violence and sexual harassment, wherever they occur. As we fight in the Senate to stand up for the men and women in our military who are survivors of sexual assault, I have heard their stories, seen the anguish in their faces, listened to them talk about the pain that will always be with them. Let me be clear: The latest revelations regarding your behavior toward women recovering from sexual assault – women who desperately need our help – have shaken me to my core.

Bob, you have already hurt so many people. To avoid hurting your victims and the people of San Diego more than you already have, you should step down immediately.

Josh Richman

Josh Richman covers state and national politics for the Bay Area News Group.
A New York City native, he earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and reported for the Express-Times of Easton, Pa. for five years before coming to the Oakland Tribune and ANG Newspapers in 1997.
He is a frequent guest on KQED Channel 9’s “This Week in Northern California;” a proud father; an Eagle Scout; a somewhat skilled player of low-stakes poker; a rather good cook; a firm believer in the use of semicolons; and an unabashed political junkie who will never, EVER seek elected office.

Post navigation

A footnote: Don’t be a quitter, Bob! None of us is perfect. Let BB throw the first stone, etc. help is available and if you work at it, you’ll be cured. I’ve been there.
Sincerely yours, Eliot S.,of NY

GV Haste

Sure, Bob Filner should resign, but he would be a complete idiot to do so.

For the same reason that Ross Mirkarimi would have been a fool to resign as Sheriff.

In each case, they were in the middle of their first year in a new higher paying position in their respective cities.

If they spend just one complete year in the position, they then retire on that “highest years compensation” factor for the rest of their life.
Their city pensions are based on that final year.

In the case of the San Diego mayor, if he can complete his first year, by staying in office until January, he stands to gain about $190,000 extra over his life from age 71 to age 86.
Thus for each of the next 4.5 months he can stay in office, he will not only be paid his $94,000 salary, and benefits, but he will also effectively get $42,000 a month extra in future pension.

So, from today, to the end of the year, he will make about $50,000 a month by staying in office.

San Diego changed their pension system, but Bob Filner is a “returning employee” because he served 5 years on the city council back before he entered congress. Those 5 years as a city council person were at a very low annual salary.
But with one complete year as mayor his entire city pension gets shifted to the new rate based on the mayoral salary of $94,000.

In the case of Ross Mirkarimi , by completing just one year in office, he stood to gain about a million future dollars if he completed one year.

AS they always say, follow the money.

The same rules that hugely jacked up the pensions of so many public employees apply to these politicians.

NO WAY Bob Filner is leaving office before January unless some one offers to keep paying him through January.

When you get into all the details of the various pension systems you see how they have been rigged to produce some gross unfairness.
California’s many pension plans are filled with small clauses and details that are hidden from the public.

Back in the early 2000’s nearly all public pensions underwent a huge change where pension rates took giant leaps. Oakland, Berkeley, Pleasanton, each already having generous pension plans, added on a HUGE 35% bonus and then made that huge leap RETROACTIVE for all prior years of service.

Horrible city officials such as Oakland’s Deborah Edgerly were given over $1,000,000 in extra future payments even though they were fired shortly thereafter.
Even typical employees such as a painter would end up getting $300,000 to $400,000 in extra pension payments though they only worked as little as 2 or 3 months under the new rules. Contributing nothing extra but taking out hundreds of thousands extra.

All hidden from the public.

So NO, Bob Filner would be a idiot to quit.
Unless some one wants to give him $250,000 or more as a bonus.

Eyesbright

#1 Senile Columnist

During the course of your (no doubt) busy day, do try to make time to look up the definition of “false equivalence.”

RR Senile Columnist

BB and Eyes Re both right. It is the shame of San Diego that no woman can safely walk by the mayor’s office without risking a bottom patting! It’s even worse than the days in Oaktown when Mayor Dellums had to be guided to the lavatory.

BlueCollarVoter

Rumours are flying all over the place that Nancy Pelsoi knew all about Filner’s propensity for harassment – she looked other way during Filner’s 12 years in Congress people are saying. I’m hearing this all over the place. Filner was Pelosi’s point-person in San Diego – she had Filner in a key leadership position – highly coveted Chairman of Veteran Affairs sub-commitee. Obviously Boxer, Pelsoi, and others want him to resign immediatly, it’s a get-rid-of-the-stinky cheese ASAP right now kind of thing. But what was going on in DC, who was covering up for Filner’s that. what I am wondering about. Look Pelsoi knows California Congressional delegation like the back of her hand, she knows everything about Cal members, it’s virtually impossible she could have not known about Filner, in my view.

JohnW

Bob the Feeler’s chief of staff reported today that the Bobster has completed his two-week intensive behavioral counseling therapy one week early. Very impressive!

RR senile columnist

Bob is about to release a new rap: “It’s a ha-bit/ I sees a pret-ty butt/ an’ I grab-b it”

Elwood

If anything would motivate me to keep clinging to office, it would be Baba Booboo telling me to resign.

Baba Booboo: Carrying on the grand tradition of California’s junior senator as doofus since 1992!

RR senile columnist

This just in to the Channel 2 newsroom : Bob Filner is in negotiations to make Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke his campaign theme song. (Reported by Wah Dafuq)